Monday, 29 December 2008

Back in the workforce, and looking for writers

After many lazy years working in grungy shorts and torn ganji, we had an offer we could not refuse.

We have pulled out our respectable work clothes and have joined Digital 18 Media Pvt Ltd (part of the Network 18 group) as Editor - Special Features of the Forbes - Network 18 magazine project. The mag has a great team, and we have always had a weakness for start-ups. The goal is attractive too: to create an international quality business magazine with local relevance.

Yennyway.

We (as in me, but also as in the magazine) have started commissioning articles, and we want you to let us know if you'd like to write for us. We (as in me, again - unless otherwise specified, it's always me, me, me in this space) are not talking the typical business feature here. The hard-core business stuff will be taken care of by folks far better qualified than we are. (If you want to write the heavy duty biz stuff, we'll put you on to them. Send us links - preferably - or a writing portfolio, and I'll pass them on.) Those are the parts of the magazine focussed on helping the reader make more money. The section we're handling is the part dedicated to helping her or him to put that affluence to good use, to, if you will, live better.

Stories could be anything from half-page quick guides (written by domain experts for intelligent readers who just don't happen to share that area of expertise) to several thousand words of rigorously researched, in-depth copy that looks at every side of the issue and has a point of view.

What about? Well, anything really. Make it interesting! Broadly, we want to help the intelligent reader expand his/her knowledge of issues, experiences and trends. No matter what the area, we will first want this question answered: why should our reader care, or need to know about this? And second, can your writing kick serious butt?

We can't go into details of sections and so forth, for that will mean the F-N18 team will take us out at dawn and shoot us (and you know how we hate getting up early), so, instead, just to give you an idea of the things we like, we went a bunch of stuff we have mailed to friends (there's an archive here, which you're welcome to go through) and pulled out a few.

The saar has managed to once again list a few of my favourite pieces of writing. Thanks muchly to the saar.

My own writing is going through a sad, sorry phase. In any case, I don't think I can ever meet the standards that the folks in the list have set. But I shall definitely send the saar's request to a few people.

somehow this computer is not able to open the links... I'll try again a few days later from some other computer...I think I could definitely offer myself for "lit debates" and "on crit"... for stuff relating to education or the internet, I might find that I need to research a fair bit before actually turning out something of quality... Shruti (courtesy caferati listings!!)

Hey Zigzackly, I got so engrossed in the extensive list of samples article that I forgot to send you my blog link. I have been writing on various topics ranging from travel, food, sreious social and gender issues, to gimmicks and ligh reads, creative short stories, poetry and even some technical stuff and provocative current affairs. Have a loko at my blog. www.nocrearreactions.com. I also blog for 3 other places... including sulekha.

Hi,I just stumbled on this post, after a few months of absence from this neck of the woods. I'd love to write for you. Writing samples, work profile, etc. have been linked to from the sidebar at http://vinvarma.comI hope I've not been too late in replying!

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We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually produce a masterpiece. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.~ Eyler Coates

to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle any human being can fight and never stop fighting~ e e cummings

In three words i can sum up everything I've learned about life.It goes on.~ Robert Frost

Ring the bells that still can ring,Forget your perfect offering,There is a crack in everything;That's how the light gets in.~ Leonard Cohen

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.~ Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989)

I fell in love – that is the only expression I can think of – at once, and am still at the mercy of words, though sometimes now, knowing a little of their behavior very well, I think I can influence them slightly and have even learned to beat them now and then, which they appear to enjoy.~ Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet, "Poetic Manifesto" in the Texas Quarterly, Winter 1961

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.~Thomas Mann, novelist, Nobel laureate (1875-1955)

The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger.~ W. Somerset Maugham, writer (1874-1965)

In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.~ Al Rogers